Throughout the ages, human beings have attempted to attain and maintain particular body morphologies, and in particular, have attempted to control their weight so as to conform with then-fashionable mores. During the recent past, a preference for less massive morphologies has been in vogue and a populous genetically ill-equipped to conform with such weight characteristics is bombarded with images of svelte figures in both male and female forms.
The desire of individuals to lose weight and specifically, to lose fatty tissue, has become nearly an obsession in the United States and many other countries. Any simple and safe method toward achieving a slim figure is in great demand. Methods for losing weight include hundreds of advised diets, machines and methods for exercise, various psychiatric techniques involving alteration in mental attitudes, and a variety of surgical techniques. Liposuction has created an entirely new surgical cosmetic industry, but carries a small but significant risk and often leaves the patient with an unsightly cosmetic result due to the inflammatory reaction surrounding where the fatty tissue has been removed by a technique which produces a severe tissue reaction.
Obesity is a serious public health hazard, second in importance only to tobacco. Approximately ⅓ of Americans are seriously overweight according to life insurance data. In approximately 12 million Americans, obesity significantly contributes toward the cause and complications of serious disease. Such conditions include heart and lung disease, many types of cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and peripheral arterial disease. This is in addition to how obesity becomes a cosmetic problem. Being overly fat limits both length of life and its quality.
A multi-billion dollar industry has developed in an effort to control weight. The many varied and expensive techniques employed speak to the relative ineffectiveness of the many techniques that have been tried to get rid of excess fat.
Obesity has recently been recognized as a public health hazard of epidemic proportions by the World Health Organization. One of three Americans between the ages of 20-74 are obese (Body Mass Index >30 Kg/m2 body surface). This amounts to 58 million people. The number of obese adults has increased dramatically. In 1980 25% of US adults were obese. The equivalent figure was 33% in 1990. In Europe the equivalent figure is about 40%.
Obesity significantly contributes to the dangers of other diseases in approximately half of those who exceed the threshold description of obesity. For example, 19% of the cost of management of heart disease can be ascribed to obesity. Obesity is also recognized as a co-morbid factor for obese patients suffering from degenerative arthritis, peripheral vascular disease, and many forms of pulmonary disease such as emphysema. The expenditure for products, goods, and services in the management of obesity is estimated to be $33 billion per year. This is 3%-4% of total health care expenditure per year and exceeds that expended for AIDS and cancer.
Obesity is such a prevalent, important and distressing problem that its many methods for suggested management are too well known to deserve more than listing. They include diets that exclude fats and high caloric elements, food supplements, appetite suppressants, exercise machines and regimes, biofeedback and other psychotherapeutic techniques, and a variety of operative techniques. Operations include a number of methods for decreasing the capacity the stomach, gastric by-pass operations, methods to shorten the small intestinal absorption surface, excision of the unwanted fat (lipectomy) and techniques of liposuction. Liposuction is performed approximately 51,000 times each year in the US. The maximum amount of fat that can safely be removed is approximately 2 Kg. Being an operative technique for removing fat, in this case by suction, it inevitably excites an inflammatory response at the operative site, which results not only in post operative inflammation but in subsequent uneven and unsightly scarring beneath the skin where the fat has been removed.
Incorporated by reference in its entirety are the following U.S. patents directed generally to chewing gum compositions, methods and apparatus for making chewing gum, and in particular, methods for enabling one of skill in the art to produce soft-centered chewing gums as contemplated by the present invention. The novelty of the present invention, however, should be understood as being distinguished from such prior art references and such incorporation by reference is only provided for enabling support of the numerous ways in which the particular novel product can be manufactured. The U.S. patents incorporated by reference are as follows: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,922,347; 5,916,606; 5,912,030; 5,900,230; 5,885,630; 5,866,179; 5,858,423; 5,846,557; 5,834,002; 5,827,526; 5,824,291; 5,736,175; 4,156,740; 5,498,429; 4,466,983; 4,157,402; 5,569,477; 5,125,819; 5,248,508; 4,975,288; 4,792,453; 4,980,178; 4,683,138; 5,087,460; 4,292,329; 4,642,235; 4,316,915; 4,513,012; 4,250,196; 5,431,929; and 4,647,450.
Weight control systems and methods have improved over the years. Indeed, the ancient Romans believed that the vomitorium was penance for their uncontrollable feasting and drinking during long celebrations for their various deities. Modern methods of weight control including arduous and sometimes bizarre workout routines and machines are no less peculiar in modern times. Moreover, with the advent of liposuction, stomach stapling, etc., there appears to be no bounds beyond which humans will go to attain desired physical characteristics as such relate to their weight. The effect of such weight norms has created a $60 billion a year market for diet and weight control products. It is estimated that nearly half of all American women, and a quarter of all men, are on a diet at any given time. As is well known, however, most diets, studies have shown, do not work for nine out of ten people who, after suffering through such diets, quickly regain their weight and often exceed their previous body mass. Such an unfortunate volley of feasting and dieting leads not only to physical harm due to increased rates of diabetes, arterial sclerosis, and other physical health problems, but also to an often devastating decreased estimation of a person's self-worth.
There is thus a long felt but unsolved need for an effective, inexpensive and easy way in which to provide health conscious individuals with diet products to assist in achieving desired weight loss.